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Activities to Offer Infants Using Communication Tools

Sign Language

Because infants develop motor skills and the concept of language much faster than the ability to speak, infants can start learning sign language at around 6 months of age. Teaching your little one how to sign a few basic ideas and needs can actually decrease frustration, as she will be able to communicate her needs to you more clearly. Signing with your infant also helps her verbal language development when used in combination with words and sounds. Having your infant look at you when you speak so that she can see the signs, makes her concentrate on the words more and how they are spoken, which helps her increase her verbal skills.

Interactive Toys and Games

Once your infant develops the motor skills to grasp objects and interact with them, she can use interactive toys and games for entertaining activities that increase her language skills. Many cell phones now support applications that have simple interactive games geared toward infants and toddlers. The games can teach a variety of language skills including letter sounds, word recognition and sentence structure. Because infants often enjoy and are fascinated with technology, it is a useful communication tool that benefits their language development.

Verbal Interactions

Verbal interactions are of the most important when helping your infant develop his language skills. Having a mock conversation with him is an activity that helps him understand how we communicate with each other and gives him the vocabulary needed to begin speaking later. Infants are absorbing vocabulary long before they speak their first word. Reading to your infant or listening to stories is an activity that aids the development of language. If your baby is tired or uninterested, singing to him is a nice alternative activity that still introduces new words and sounds to increase his language skills.